Periodic Charges and Services

Periodic Services and Charges are templates which are used to generate repeat jobs and charges at almost any interval. They are a powerful part of your Smart billing system.

Periodic Services and Periodic Charges are very similar, except that when they are generated Periodic Services appear in the Job Despatch window and require operator completion before being submitted for invoicing, while Periodic Charges go straight to the 'Approve Items for Invoicing' window. Access to Periodic Charges windows is more limited than for Periodic Services.

Creating a Periodic Service or Charge

Access the list of Periodic Services by clicking on the button on the 'Getting Around Smart' window, or by selecting \Operations \Periodic Services from the Main Menu.

Access the list of Periodic Charges by clicking on the button on the 'Getting Around Smart' window, or by selecting \Accounts \Customers \Periodic Charges from the Main Menu.

To filter the view (for example, to show only periodics for a specified customer), click on the appropriate left button. To clear your selection and see periodics for all customers again, press the same button.
Select 'Current' in the 'Display' box to exclude periodics where the 'Cancelled' box has been checked, or the periodic is not active because of the setting of the Suspended, Commenced, or Terminated dates. Select 'Inactive' to see only inactive jobs.
Press the 'Print' button to print one or more periodics. You will be asked whether you want to print only the highhighted periodic, or all periodics in the current view.
Press the 'Copy' button to either
- create a new periodic based on the highlighted periodic, or
- copy selected fields (for example, the service provider) from the highlighted periodic to the other periodics in the view.
To sort the view, click on the label at the top of a column. Sorting is not available for all columns.

Right click on an entry for adding and updating options. To view an existing entry you can also double click on it, right click or highlight it and press the Enter key. To add an entry, you can also press the Insert key. Operator access is defined in the Operator Configuration window.

Dates and Rates

Frequency	Every Day: Generates every day Weekly: Generates every 7 days Fortnightly: Generates every 14 days 4 Weekly: Generates every 28 days Weekdays: Generates every day, Monday to Friday (including public holidays) Weekends: Generates every Saturday and Sunday (including public holidays) Public Holidays: Generates only on days specified as public holidays (choose \Maintenance \Smart Setup \Public Holidays from the Main Menu). See also comments in following section ('Next'). Once Only: Generates once only and is then marked 'cancelled'. Daily Interval: Generates every x days (a field are displayed so you can specify the number of days). Monthly, Same Day: e.g. 2nd Tuesday of month (additional fields are displayed to specify details). You are not permitted to select the 5th day of the month because some months don't have 5 of some days. Monthly, Same Date: Same day of the month each month, e.g. 20th. If the date specified in Next: is the 28th of the month or later, this has the same effect as choosing 'Month End'. Month End: Last day of the month, i.e. February 28 (or 29), March 31, etc. Quarterly: Same day of the month each quarter (3 months), e.g. 20th. If the date specified in Next: is the 28th of the month or later, the charge or service is generated on the last day of the month. 6 Monthly: Same day of the month every 6 months, e.g. 20th. If the date specified in Next: is the 28th of the month or later, the charge or service is generated on the last day of the month. Yearly: Same date each year. If the date specified is 29 February (only possible in a leap year) subsequent years will be generated on 28 February.
Next	The charge or service will be generated on this date and this date will appear as the Received date (and for Services, the Scheduled Date). Once the charge or service has been generated the date is rolled forward. If necessary, multiple charges or services will be generated in one pass. For example if you set up a monthly charge with the Next date set to 6 months ago and then generate periodics, 6 monthly charges will be generated. This allows you to back charge if appropriate. If you specify a Next date which does not match the frequency, for example if the frequency is set to Weekends but you specify a weekday, the next charge or service is generated on the date specified but future charges or services will only be generated on Saturdays or Sundays. If you specify a frequency of Public Holiday and a public holiday occurs before the date specified in Next, a charge or service will be generated for the public holiday (this is a safety feature) and not for the specified date (unless it's a public holiday). If you want to skip the next public holiday, use Suspend From/To (see below). If you specify a frequency of Public Holiday and a date which is not a public holiday, a charge or service will be generated for that date (unless a public holiday occurs first, see previous point).
To cover period from/to	These dates are shown in the Service Details section of the invoice. They are also used when calculating the charge for a part period (see Suspend, Commence, Terminate). Usually you would set these dates to cover the full period, e.g. for a monthly charge you could set the dates to the first and last day of the month. Smart calculates these dates for you when you select a frequency.
Suspend from/to	Setting these dates suspends the charge or service for the date range shown and adjusts the price accordingly. If a From date is specified with no To date this suspends the charge or service indefinitely. (Using Terminate may be more appropriate, see below.) If a To date is specified with no From date this suspends the charge or service immediately, until the To date. See the section Price calculation for part periods, below for further information.
Commence	Specifying a Commence date commences charging from that date. If necessary a partial charge or service will be generated for the period containing the Commence date. See also Price calculation for part periods, below.
Terminate	Specifying a Terminate date terminates charging at that date. If necessary a partial charge or service will be generated for the period containing the Terminate date. See also Price calculation for part periods, below. It is not necessary to check the Cancelled box. This will be checked automatically after Smart has generated any remaining charges or services.
Cancelled	Check this box to cancel generation of this charge or service immediately. No further generation will take place, regardless of any other setting. In most cases, you will enter a Terminate date rather than check this box. Entering a Terminate date will ensure that Smart calculates and bills for any outstanding part periods. It also gives you a visual record of the date the charge or service was cancelled. Smart will automatically check the Cancelled box once there are no more charges or services to generate.
Start at/after	Specify the time (if any) the service is due (this is usually not relevant for charges). This time is used as the Received Time (and for Services, the Scheduled Time) for the charge or service.
Repeat ... times	Repeat the service this number of times. Only used for Patrols (see below).
O/No	Order number (if any) provided by the client. This order number appears on the generated service or charge.
Ref	Customer reference. If anything is entered here it may be used as the job number for generated charges and services, depending on the setting in the General Configuration window (Periodics tab, 'Customer Ref as Job Ref'). It appears prefaced by the words 'Our Reference: ' in the service details for a Charge.
Charge Customer	The amount ex GST to charge the customer (GST is calculated and applied at generate time). The customer pricing for a charge or service can be modified after generation by an operator with the appropriate access level. If you check the Fixed Price box xoxo If the generated service is despatched by an operator who changes the details, the price will be adjusted automatically. For this reason, service pricing (as opposed to charge pricing) should be set up in the Customer Rate window (press the $ button next to the customer, at the top of this window).
Pay Contractor/ Split	The amount ex GST to pay the contractor, if any (GST is calculated and applied at generate time). The contractor pricing for a charge or service can be modified after generation by an operator with the appropriate access level. If the charge specified here is $0, the price may be calculated at generation time depending on your system configuration. If the generated service is despatched by an operator who changes the details, the price will be adjusted automatically. For this reason, service pricing (as opposed to charge pricing) should be set up in the Customer Rate window (press the $ button next to the customer, at the top of this window).
Holiday Surcharge	The amount(s) entered here will be added to the Customer Charge or Contractor Payment for each public holiday which falls between the Period From and To dates. The amounts and any GST are calculated at generate time. If no charge or payment is to apply on a public holiday, enter a negative amount here and it will be subtracted from the normal charge for this period. To specify public holidays, choose \Maintenance \Smart Setup \Public Holidays from the Main Menu.
Division	Specify the Division for the generated Charge or Service. Depending on your system configuration, Divisions might be called something else.
Do Not Generate Charge or Service	If this box is checked no charge or service is generated (the dates are rolled forward, however). You can use this facility for items which are not being billed or despatched in Smart but which are to appear on a service provider runsheet, e.g. patrols.

Pricing

You can enter the amount to charge the customer, or press the calculator button next to the Customer price field to calculate the average price for the period from the customer pricing for the service code. Check the Fixed Price box to charge this amount each period, adjusted for part periods (see below).

If you select per day in the next section, the amount will be charged for each day in the period according to your selection. For example, if you select Weekends, the amount will be charged for each Saturday and Sunday in the period. (Less holidays, if excluded.)

If you don't tick the Fixed Price box, the price will be recalculated as operators update the job with details of work done. The customer rate set for the service code will be used for the calculation.

The same logic applies to calculations for contractor payments.

Price calculation for part periods

If a part period applies (because the charge or service commences after the start of the period, ends before the end of the period, or is suspended for part of the period) Smart calculates a revised price for the charge or service. If the charge or service is suspended for the entire period, no job of service is generated.

There are two slightly different methods for calculating pricing for part periods (the difference is approximately 1%). To choose a method, change the setting in the General Configuration window, Periodics tab, Part Periods.

Credit off service - Customer receives credit for time off service at average daily rate (favours you)
Charge on service - Customer is charged only for time on service at daily rate (favours customer)

Service Details tab

Control Room	Determines which control room the charge or service is attributed to (only applicable if your system is set up with more than one control room). The term 'Control Room' may be replaced by another term, depending on your system configuration.
Instructions / Invoice Detail	Anything entered here appears in the Service Details for the generated service or charge.
Don't print above details on Invoice	If checked, the 'Print on Invoice' checkbox on the Job Details window (Service Details tab) is cleared so that the Service Details do not appear on the invoice.
Use Fixed Width Font	Uses a fixed width font when displaying or printing service details for this Periodic Charge or Service or jobs generated by it. Use this if you are entering details in columns (e.g. a series of labour shifts) so that the columns will be displayed correctly.
Enter Daily Hours	Brings up a window allowing quick entry of daily hours. You must enter dates in this window in order to generate entries. Usually (unless the charge or service is a Once Only) after closing this window you would edit the Instructions / Invoice Detail field and replace the dates with days of the week.
Internal Notes	Anything entered here appears in the Internal Notes field of the Job Details window for the generated charge or service.
Include in Operational Reports	The following reports have the option to include only periodic charges or services which have this box checked : Patrol Run Sheets (select \Operations \Print \Patrol Run Sheets) Periodic Service Preview (select \Operations \Print \Periodics Preview) Use this if you generate run sheets based on periodic charge or service entries rather than the charges and services generated by them.
Big Notes	Provides a much larger window for the entry of Internal Notes (see above).

Patrols

Details of Patrols are entered on the Patrols tab. The patrols tab is displayed if the Service Type for the Service selected contains the word 'Patrol' or the System Configuration Service Type setting Periodic Details / Show Patrols tab is set to 'Yes' for this service type.

Simple Patrols

Simple Patrols allow you to quickly specify patrols but do not allow you to track missed calls or record verification of patrols. To use Simple Patrols, enter the number of patrols required for each day or night.

To turn Simple Patrols into Advanced patrols, press the 'Move to Advanced' button at right.

Advanced Patrols

Advanced Patrols provide the full power of the Smart patrols system.

Enter details of the patrols to be scheduled in the Initial Setup area. Once you have started to create runsheets for this customer you should not delete or modify entries in this area as this is now used to display history for this customer. If you add a new entry once patrols have been started, make an entry in the Allocations/Variations area and specify the date that the change starts.

Double click on an entry to change it. To make more detailed changes to patrol settings, right click and choose Full Edit.

Check the Monitor box to display patrols in the Dispatch window (subject to display settings) so that operators can monitor patrols as they fall due.
The next three checkboxes determine what information is required before the job can be considered complete.

Times means that on and off site times must be entered.
Docket means that the docket number must be entered
Verified means that the patrol's attendance must have been verified (e.g. by tour wand or GPS).

If none of these checkboxes are ticked, the patrol job will be considered complete as soon as it is generated and will appear in the 'Prepare Items for Invoicing' window.
If these checkboxes are all greyed out, it's because the settings differ between the patrol entries above. To view or change this, right click on the patrol entry and choose 'Full Edit'.

Click here for further information about patrols.

Guards

Details of Guards are entered on the Guards tab. The patrols tab is displayed if the System Configuration Service Type setting Periodic Details / Show Guards tab is set to 'Yes' for this service type.

For further information see the Guard Scheduling section.

Other

Pressing the Generated Items button displays a list of charges or services generated by this Periodic. Double click on an entry to see further details.

Press the Change History button displays a history of operator changes for this Periodic.

Generating Periodic Charges and Services

To generate the jobs and charges which will appear in the the despatch window and/or the Approve Items for Invoicing window, press the Generate button on the list of Periodic Charges or Services.

This window will appear:

You can also set up automatic generation (or limit access) in the General Configuration window. This window also has options to display the date range covered by the charge or service, and show the number of services.

It's a good idea to generate periodics daily so that you don't miss anything. The options in the above window allow you to select whether to generate for the next day or night shift (if periodics are generated automatically, charges or services due up to midnight tomorrow will be generated).

If you miss generating for a few days, Smart will generate as many services or charges as necessary to catch up. For example if you specified a service frequency of daily but didn't generate periodics for a week, the next time you generated you would see 7 services generated. If you accidentally enter an old date (say, a century back) Smart will generate a maximum of 100 charges or services in an attempt to get up to date.

Duplicate charges and services won't be generated, so if you choose to generate more than once on the same day there is no risk of generating the same service or charge more than once.

You can safely generate periodics more than once on the same day without generating duplicate services or charges. Only periodics added or changed between generations which are now due will be generated.